Day 62 – New Equipment!

August 23, 2013

Today is Friday and I will be leaving to Toronto on Sunday to see the Doctor and the physiotherapist at the hand clinic in Toronto. This is part of my monthly follow-ups and I am certain that they will take more measurements and review my progress. Below is a video of some new exercise equipment that I purchased from the physiotherapist as well as a demonstration of some of the exercises I’m doing at the physiotherapist to redevelop my fine motor skills that my fingers should have.

My pain level has gone down during the day and it is really an ache in my fingers and I think it’s because I’m exercising them every two hours. This seems to be like a Catch-22 situation whereby if you do not exercise your fingers they go stiff and if you do exercise your fingers they will ache. I am told that this is part of the recovery process and that if I didn’t want any pain and if I wanted the swelling to go down they could put me in a brace and that would do the trick until I actually wanted to move my fingers only to find out that I wouldn’t be able to. So I guess I will take this approach. The funny thing about recovery is that you have some really really good days and you think you have crossed the line to recovery only to be pushed back a week the following day for no particular reason at all. It is a very strange phenomenon. For example on Tuesday I drove to Ottawa and I was at a car dealer looking at a Fiat Abarth convertible. It was a five-speed standard and I test drove it many times throughout the day and I was there from 9:30 in the morning till 4 o’clock in the afternoon at which time I decided to buy the Abarth. I could tell you that I was getting bored of my wrist exercises and that adding a five-speed stick shift would liven up the recovery process quite a bit however in reality this is my dream car and I finally am going to get. I do not want to look backwards with respect to my wrist and I only want to look forwards and be positive. That is why I’m switching my automatic to a standard car. In reality this will help exercise my wrist on a daily basis as well as my senses! But throughout the whole day I didn’t pay any attention to my wrist or fingers and they seem to be very very flexible. It was a huge leap forward but on Wednesday I woke up very stiff and I was back to the way it was a couple of days before.

I still take to painkillers at night since my wrist and fingers do get tired towards the end of the day and begin to ache. I’m almost out of them and I am not certain they do much other than mentally reassure me that all have a good night sleep. So I figure in two days when I run out I will try to just go to sleep.

I can definitely do more things now even though my fingers are steps. For example I can hold a knife and cut celery and carrots. I can wash my left underarm with a bar of soap without dropping it. I can lift more things although I try not to lift anything heavy. I have more manipulation with my fingers even though they are stiff. I do not have the strength to use the brakes on my motorcycle and therefore I do not think I will be driving it this season at all.

More and more people are starting to send me emails or enter comments on this blog. I’m beginning to see a wide variety of recovery processes and it seems like each operation is unique. Therefore, those who are seeking to find out what will happen to them when they happen operation is best to keep a positive attitude and look at the long-term progress versus the short-term pain. And in some cases people have had no pain or very little pain. And again I’m told, that pain is how your body reacts to the procedure and everybody is different in that manner.

To his my video of my new exercise equipment and you can also see my progress…

Thanks it’s so reassuring to know someone gets how frustrating this procedure is to my daily life with two young kids. It is really unpredictable. Some days I feel like this rare disease is blessing that helps me slow down and think and other days it just fuels my resentment for all the things I struggle to do. I m off prescription pain killers and just on pm Motrin.i have amazing physical therapist I can only see one time a week . I will attemp to do the hand excercise more often because you seem so so much more positive on you recovery. I’m kind of stuck at. Day 60
Martha. Hot am baths really help along with no looking back.